Viz Engine

Version 3.11 | Published August 27, 2018 ©

New in Viz Engine 3.11

This section contains information on the following topics:

Implementation of SMPTE 2110 for Matrox X.mio3 IP Extension

Viz Engine 3.11 contains all the latest changes implemented by Matrox regarding SMPTE 2110.
Changes (Hardware):

  • Matrox X.mio3 is respecting SMPTE ST 2022-7 now. The configuration for the SFPs is 4in4out on SFP A and 0in0out on SFP B. SFP B is used as the redundancy connection.

  • SMPTE ST 2059 is now stable on both SFPs, BMCA is activated.

  • IGMP v3 is now supported.

Changes (Software):

  • For better accessibility and overview, all IP related settings were moved to a separate configuration file. The file ipconfig.xml is located in the same Program Data directory where the Viz Engine configuration file is placed.

Support for Matrox X.mio3 12G

In an UHD environment, Matrox X.mio3 12G can be used. The capabilities match those of a standard X.mio3/X2 (one UHD in, one Fill/Key UHD out). For the card to work, two additional SFP modules (Embrionix) are required: One input and one output module. Each of the SFPs is equipped with two HD-SDI connectors.

Newtek TriCaster NDI Input used in Matrox X.mio3 Environment

This allows NDI input streams to be used in an SDI environment. To use NDI input streams in an SDI environment, the stream_in_type needs to be set to 1, the desired number of StreamIn channels need to be enabled and the NDISource needs to be set in those channels. All available NDI sources are discovered during start up, as well as during run-time.

Note: The number of configurable StreamIn channels has been increased to 16.

Note: The number of NDI channels that can be used at the same time depends almost exclusively on the available bandwidth and utilization of the network card. On a physical system with a 1GbE NIC, you can typically play up to four 1080i50 streams before that limit is reached. However, this is also influenced by all other traffic on the same NIC. On virtual machines, the number of usable streams may be lower.

SAM SDC protocols with Matrox

The Viz Engine supports SDC-01, SDC-02, and SDC-03 protocols by SAM to obtain telemetry data when an X.mio3IP card is running in 2022-6 mode. The information in those protocols also cover ST-2059 status in addition to the IP flows.

Bones and Skinning support

Vertex Skinning allows designers to build mesh animations now. Bones can be used to deform geometry meshes and allow complex character animations which were not possible before. Animations can now be built in third party design applications like Maya or Cinema4D and imported as FBX into VizArtist/VizEngine. Additionally, the VizEngine supports, together with VizTrackingHub, live motion capturing and animation of tracked characters.

Libero AR integration

The Viz Engine integration with Viz Libero AR combines the analysis power of Viz Libero with augmented reality (AR) graphics, creating a new way for sports presenters to tell the story of the action on the field and engage sports fans.

Superchannels support for texture media assets

Previously, Superchannels could only be used with DVE media assets, in this version texture-based media assets are also available for use. This opens new possibilities to (e.g. use Live or Clip assets) within Superchannels on video walls or other DVI applications.

Razor fonts

This VizEngine version introduces a completely new way to render text, with text rendering being performed on the GPU. The anti-aliasing calculation of characters is performed by the VizEngine to render sharp and resolution-independent text with higher quality than the standard anti-aliasing that the graphics driver could deliver.

Matrox HDR support

In this first implementation of the HDR support, DVE for SDI inputs, clips, and graphics output are covered. There is currently no support for texture input, for either SDI or clips.